Happy 30th Birthday to Me!

So what does a gal do for her big 3-o birthday?











ROAD TRIP.............Well, sort of.


We made the big move from Oregon to Arizona. It was a very interesting drive. We drove over rivers, next to snowy mountains, rocky mountains, through fragrant orange orchards and stinky cow farms, by fields of GIANT wind harvesting wind mills in the desert and to the land of cactus!

I actually got to spend my birthday morning with my family in California. We stopped there along the way to drop off some stuff and to say Hi to the familia. My brother in law Jarom came along and he has been a huge help.

Here's an interesting treat we tried along the way



Yes, the BACON MAPLE SUNDAY. Its available at Denny's. Joe just had to have one. I had a taste and it was not bad. but I'm a bacon lover.


The maple syrup was in the bottom. I was not to sure about that. maple syrup and ice cream do not mix.

And what road trip isn't complete without car trouble? yep. Driving from California to Arizona my AC broke and then my car started overheating. We had to switch out cars, you see, I was driving my SUV and Joe was driving the Uhaul and hauling his truck. We ended up switching my car for his truck.




The kids seeking some shade


See the palm trees in the back? Sophie calls them pom pom trees :)



So that's how I spent my birthday weekend.

Our First Arizona moon


Beautiful

When Mommy doesn't want to bake

We go out for dessert!!! Most of our kitchen is packed up since we are moving very soon to Arizona and we were all craving some sweets.

One of our favorite places to eat is Sherry's they have really good coffee and almost every type of pie.




Best pie ever, peanut butter chocolate silk.

Portland Japanese Gardens.

We had a small break from the rain here in Oregon so we headed out to the Portland Japanese Garden. It was cold and damp but that did not stop us. Living here in Oregon for almost 5 years, we got use to the rain.








Everything is so green in Oregon, a very unusual shade of green almost neon.


See?

everything is also covered in moss.








Miss stubborn did not want to wear a sweater today but upon getting to the garden she complained she was cold so she ended up wearing my sweater.


Oh and look! a SMILE from miss Sophie, this is a VERY RARE occasion.






Zen Garden









Prayers for the victims of the Japanese Earthquake




We had the pleasure to see Ikebana, the traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement. ikebana arrangement follows a fixed pattern: a triangle of three points representing heaven, earth, and man.







My little guy is so handsome.

To stay in the Japanese spirit, we made bentos. A Bento is 
a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine

Arent' these cute. Got the Princess ones from the Disney Store and the robot one at Borders.





rice, teriyaki chicken and green beans.

My first basket weave cake

I had tons of problems with this cake. I could not level it to save my life and when I added the filling, I added to much and the top layer kept sliding off, It was a yellow cake filled with pistachio pudding, the pudding kept seeping out onto the white buttercream icing. I was more than happy to cover it up with a basket weave technique.

see, its not so bad now.







It had like a 2 inch layer of icing! The sucker was heavy.

Guess Who's Birthday It is today?

Our Beautiful Beagle Buffy (say that 10x fast) turned 8 today. Happy Birthday!!!. Look at her, She's all smiles.

 We took her out for a nice walk at the park, she enjoyed barking at the ducks and sniffing every tree.



We then went to the pet store and bought her some treats.

You guessed it, she got a pink cupcake squeeze toy and other goodies






Happy 8th Birthday Buffy, we love you

And some Bonus pics of the girlies, Nick had school today.


Notice the Oregon Duck's stadium on the background